Tracking nature dependencies and nature-related risks: integrated environmental-economic accounting in Australia

Ecosystems and the services they provide underpin economic production and human wellbeing, yet these dependencies are poorly measured and rarely monitored. As a result, conventional economic statistics often fail to show how ecosystem decline may threaten production and wellbeing. The missing information can be supplied by the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), an international statistical standard for tracking environmental stocks and flows, including ecosystems and their services, which is interoperable with the System of National Accounts (SNA). We assess how a linked system of SEEA and SNA accounts can be used to measure and track nature-economy dependencies, including the transmission of physical risk. We argue that accounting for ecosystem services provides the main connection between nature and the economy. The connection depends upon accounts using consistent classifications and typologies, which we call material join keys, so that information about ecosystems, ecosystem services, industries and economic activities can be reliably linked. Applying the approach to Australia, a gap analysis shows that existing ecosystem service accounts already track several of the dependencies most important and at risk from ecosystem decline, but only partially, and that priority new accounts for water and food security, health, climate resilience and supply chain resilience are needed to close the remaining gaps. Realising the potential of integrated accounting supports the mainstreaming of natural capital considerations into decision-making and public policy, and the proactive management of nature-related risks.